Install System76 Firmware From Source on Fedora Silverblue 35

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1

Hi there,

I’m looking into using Silverblue on my laptop. One important capability I’ll need is to be able to install firmware from source.

I’m in a position where I don’t know what I don’t know. However, from the looks of things, this may be something that is off the beaten path.

Does anyone here have knowledge of how that might work?

For some additional context, it would involve cloning a repository from github, ensuring python and rust are installed and available, and building with make.

2

Welcome to ask.:fedora:edora @rylan

Try to use toolbox on the system different as silver-blue. If it works in toolbox, what you want to do, you can use in silver-blue too in a toolbox.

This might be helpful to make your decisions (Silverblue filesystem layout):
Technical Information :: Fedora Docs

3

The thing with silverblue (and kinoite) is that they are distributed as an immutable system. Updates are managed with dnf-ostree and most software other than the initial install are layered on, installed by flatpak, or some other method. I have not tried it so am not totally aware of the details, but I do understand that the ‘normal’ method of installing packages using dnf or compiling do not work well, if at all.

You may want to thoroughly educate yourself in the nuances of managing silverblue before you dive in too deep. It is ‘different’ than a regular linux system.

4

I’m aware of toolbox, distrobox, layering with ostree, etc.

I suppose I should be more specific.

Layering with rpm-ostree makes sense as it’s installing via the package manager in a controlled fashion.

How would one install firmware on silverblue that isn’t packaged as an rpm?

5

Please take a look at this by report, system76-dkms fails to install with ostree

Instructions for installing on Fedora are here

System 76 COPR

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6

Interesting - thank you for the key info. I had forgotten that I installed the system76 packages for dkms etc via COPR on my Fedora 35 install. I was preparing to install and evaluate Silverblue until you linked the issues with dkms… that’s alright! I’ll just stick with a regular Fedora 35 install for now :sunglasses: